In 1897 Dundee University-College became part of the University of Saint Andrews and in 1954 it was renamed Queen's College. These changes, which included the incorporation of the Dundee School of Economics into the College, still left it as an integral part of the University of Saint Andrews. However the growth of tertiary education around this time increased local demand for the University-College to be granted full independent university status.
In 1966, Saint Andrews University Court and the Council of Queen's College submitted a joint petition to the Privy Council seeking the grant of a Royal Charter to establish the University of Dundee. This petition was approved and Queen's College became the University of Dundee on the August 1, 1967.
The university has grown since securing that status, and in 1974 it began to validate some degrees from Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and by 1988 all degrees from that institution were being validated by the university. By 1994 the two institutions merged with one another, with the college becoming a faculty of the university. In 1996 the Tayside College of Nursing and the Fife College of Health studies became part of the university as a school of Nursing and Midwifery. In December, 2001 the university merged with the Dundee campus of Northern College to create a Faculty of Education and Social Work.
Although it only became an independent university in 1967, Dundee University is viewed as being an "ancient" university due to its long standing roots as a university-college, and as part of the University of Saint Andrews.